Travelopo has now claimed villa owners on the Balearic island had come to the company 'in desperation' after Villa Parade had left them out of pocket.

In a statement on its website today, Travelopo said: "The landlords allege that Villa Parade has not paid them for more than a year and this is causing huge financial hardship. They were forced to stop dealing with Villa Parade...

"In desperation, the landlords asked Travelopo (via their local representative Business Resorts), to assist them to warn the holidaymakers that their bookings might not be valid and to try to stop Villa Parade from advertising their properties."

Travelopo also made other accusations and criticised holiday insurer ABTA for not taking action.

The statement continues: "...because their villas were still being sold by Villa Parade, this caused confusion. There were a number of instances where Villa Parade failed to warn their customers that they could not get access to the villa that had been sold to them. This has caused lots of local problems including the involvement of the local police. The landlords asked ABTA to take action, but without success."

ABTA is setting up a special "travel clinic" to advise many of the holidaymakers who have paid out for flights or holidays.

The company has spent years renting out villas, mainly in Spain and Portugal.

ABTA say there around 1,300 bookings for future holidays with villa accommodation only.

What ABTA say

Any customers who have booked this type of arrangement directly with Air Parade Ltd can get all the information to make a claim by going to ABTA's Travel Clinic and a refund for the villa accommodation will be arranged.

The watchdog says there are around 400 forward bookings for flight-packages that will be protected by its ATOL cover.

In addition there are around 300 forward bookings where Air Parade provided the accommodation via another company.

Customers should contact the company they used to book the accommodation and they will be looked after by that company, who will either advise that their holiday can go ahead, arrange an alternative booking, or arrange a refund.

In a small number of bookings Air Parade was acting as an agent for other travel providers.

Any customer who made a booking through Air Parade but whose accommodation or travel is being supplied by another company (the travel provider) should contact the travel provider in the first instance.

Want to read, watch and hear more? You can download the FREE Examiner Apple App here, the FREE Examiner Android App here or you can view the paper as an e-edition on your Apple, Android or Kindle device by clicking here

Send a story

Advertising Department

The Huddersfield Daily Examiner is the leading morning title read throughout the Huddersfield and Holmfirth areas.

With a daily circulation of 18,241 (ABC July-Dec 2012) and every issue read by 49,374 (JICREG 1/10/12) we are the area’s favourite and most trusted newspaper.

Our www.examiner.co.uk website is the number one local news website in the area with 250,000 unique users and almost 2,000,000 page views a month*, 44% of who are in the desirable ABC1 socio-economic groups.

The Editor

Roy Wright

Editor, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Phone

01484 437707

Roy Wright was appointed editor of The Huddersfield Daily Examiner in 2002. Prior to this he was assistant editor of The Liverpool Echo for three years. He has also worked at the Hull Daily Mail as well as a number of Press agencies.

Roy grew up in Burnley, Lancashire and has worked in the local newspaper industry for 25 years.